Portland Police: Stop firing off guns on New Year's

That's the New Year's Eve message from the Portland Police Bureau, whose officers will be on patrol citywide to respond to reports of shots fired in neighborhoods.

Last year, officers responded to 16 calls for service regarding reports of someone firing a gun on New Year's Eve, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a department spokesman.

Firing a gun within city limits is illegal and anyone caught doing so faces arrest and charges of all applicable crimes.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, a bullet fired upward can climb two miles into the air and remain in flight for more than a minute. As it falls, the bullet reaches a velocity of up to 700 feet per second, more than three times the force necessary to penetrate the human skull.

The Portland Police Bureau is asking for cooperation to end 2013 and begin 2014 without a firearm-related tragedy.

Elsewhere this year, deaths and serious injuries from wayward bullets have been attributed to celebratory gunfire. In Chesterfield, Va., a seven-year-old boy, Brendon Mackey, died as he walked with his father at an Independence Day fireworks show last July. Ten-year-old Aaliyah Boyer was fatally wounded just after midnight last New Year's while watching neighbors light fireworks in her front yard.

The girl's mother offered a plea to The Baltimore Sun: "When you shoot a gun, a bullet has to go somewhere," said Crystal Blackburn, Aaliyah's mother. "Don't do that. Don't shoot guns for any reason."

Anyone hearing gunfire in their neighborhood is asked to immediately call 9-1-1.